NOVEMBER 1st - Virginia Commonwealth University



NOVEMBER 1st

A beautiful arrangement of flowers sits in our apartment. It came from Ted & Marg, our thoughtful friends in Cardiff, Wales, U.K. The florist tells me that communications are such that flowers can be ordered and delivered in less than an hour from all over the world.

They came while Betty Lou was recovering from surgery, and the beautiful flowers have been a bright spot in the home every day since their arrival. The array of colors not only catch our eye, but remind us of the good wishes and prayers of our friends.

We believe that prayers and good wishes can travel even faster than a bouquet. Think of flashing a prayer to God quicker than one can send E-mail. Think of the healing thoughts that cross the ether waves as quickly as we produce them. Those prayers offered to God for our children, family, loved ones and friends (even enemies!) are like the flowers in our home.

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

(Song of Songs 2:1).

NOVEMBER 2nd

Solomon's prayer (II Chron. 6:32,33) suggests that every person, coming from any place is likely to be a praying person. It is a practice like breathing or eating; we engage in it because we are human, and afterwards discuss it as best we can.

Carlyle said this in a letter to a friend, "Prayer is and remains the native and deepest impulse of the soul of man. It is a natural function of human life."

"All souls that struggle and aspire,

All hearts of prayer, by thee are lit,

And, dim or clear, thy tongues of fire

On dusky tribes and twilight centuries sit."

Epictetus, a non-Christian philosopher, had this to say about prayer, "When thou hast shut thy door and darkened thy room, say not to thyself that thou art alone, God is in thy room."

Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all thy heart. (Jer. 29:13).

NOVEMBER 3rd

Just as eating is a normal activity, so prayer to Daniel was an impulse he attended to three times a day. He did not neglect prayer until he was forced to do so in the lion's den. He prayed not only in emergencies and peril; he prayed three times a day.

In the awful times of war, Lincoln said: "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go; my own wisdom and that of all around me seemed insufficient for the day."

The naturalness of prayer! Pericles begins every address with prayer. Xenophen began each day's march with prayer. The greatest of Greek orations Demosthones' "On the Crown," and the greatest of Greek poems, "The Iliad," opened with prayer.

In the 107th Psalm there is a description of a storm at sea which reveals the nature of impulsive prayer, "They...are at their wit's end. Then they cry to the Lord."

When prayer is left untrained we pray only when we have reached our wit's end. Prayer, left fitful and undisciplined, can be nothing more than an occasional, selfish demand on God.

Seek the Lord and His strength, seek his face continually. (I Chron.16:11).

NOVEMBER 4th

I loved to hear Jimmy Robertson preach. He was one of the most natural speakers I ever heard. He seemed to tell some of his stories, making them up as he went along, but I learned after some years that such was not the case. He prepared his sermons with much time and care, on the same round table that was his place for counseling.

He deliberately started a church in the marketplace, not the suburbs. The church leaders warned him that it was most unlikely such a congregation

would live and grow in the very areas that other congregations were leaving.

Yet that church in Arlington, VA continues to minister after three decades.

Located within something over a mile from the White House, it has a group of men who meet regularly to pray for (not to criticize) the members of Congress, and selects a group of congressmen for whom prayer is made the day they gather. Some congressmen have joined them from time to time.

Jimmy Robertson had a dream that has become a living presence in the marketplace. A church that would make its presence known where people labor for a living.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. (Isaiah 35:3).

NOVEMBER 5th

Marcus Aurelius, the Roman philosopher, understood the three relationships of human beings which make the unity of life: man's relationship to his universe, to his God, and to his fellow man. The individual who violates any one of these relationships detaches himself from the other parts. The crowning glory of man is that by his will he can achieve unity.

I remember a prayer posted in a little army chapel in the Philippines which had to do with the sorrow that lies in living apart from God, from man, and from the ordered life of the universe:

"God our Father, all we like sheep have gone astray; we have followed the meandering stream of pleasure, we have cut ourselves off from our fellows. Whatever our outward semblance of happiness, we live in loneliness of spirit until with the same will which prompted our straying, we turn back to live in the unity of thy universe. We thank Thee for this beautiful provision in thy love for us, that we may again resume our forfeited place. Amen."

Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jer. 29:13).

NOVEMBER 6th

One of the most meaningful uses of prayer is to calm the unwholesome

specters of the mind that irritate the spirit and make the body ill. In such battles of the spirit we learn Paul's lesson, "In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your thoughts in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6,7).

Peter Annet used to say that praying persons are like sailors who have cast anchor on a rock, and who imagine that they are pulling the rock unto themselves, when they are really pulling themselves to the rock!

Dr. Hyslop, Supt. of the Bethlehem Royal Hospital, made this statement at an annual meeting of the British Medical Association: "As an alienist, and one whose whole life has been concerned with the suffering of the mind, I would state that of all hygienic measures to counteract disturbed, sleep depressed spirits, and all the miserable sequels of a distressed mind, I would undoubtedly give the first place to the simple habit of prayer."

His ears are open unto their prayers. (I Peter 3:12).

NOVEMBER 7th

I remember a story from my youth about two small boys who saw that they were going to be late for school. One said, "Let's kneel down and pray." The other panted in reply, "No, let's pray as we go."

That reminded me of persons in the business world I have known, who of necessity "pray as they go." They pray for those associated with them, as Frank E. Brown used to tell me that he did, as he walked through his paper plant.

I believe in having a time and place set aside for praise and prayer, but that overflows into the daily walk. Teachers seemingly at the end of their power, pray for children in their class; parents wanting the best for their child, ask God to guide the one who apparently wants no help.

There is a loved one beyond my power to help-that when I awake at night, and in desperation, say, "God I am so helpless to guide this one near to my heart, I beg you to do more for him than I know how to ask," relieved, I fall back asleep again.

The Lord is the strength of my life. (Psalm 27:1).

NOVEMBER 8th

Let's begin each day with prayer and "a daily renovation." Most of us believe in periodic renewal - there is Advent, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, etc. Many persons adhere to weekly renovation: every Sunday they pray for forgiveness and renewal, and for a clean start in the week ahead.

Daily renovation is taught in Isaiah 58:2:

Daily, indeed they consult me,

And delight to know my ways.

Like a nation that does what is right,

And forsakes not the law of its God.

T'ang engraved the truth he wanted to follow - his maxim -on his tub where it would confront him every morning when he was merely his unadorned self.

Many of us begin our day with "Give us this day our daily bread," our daily pardon, our daily strength, our daily renovation!

When Yoshin, a Chinese sage of 200 A.D., was offered a large bribe with the assurance that no one would know he had taken it, his reply made history. In fact it has passed as a proverb into the daily life of both China and Japan. He said, "Heaven knows it; you would know it; and I would know it. How can you say that no one will know?"

Watch integrity and look upon right. (Psalm 37:37)

NOVEMBER 9th

The testimony of Dr. Alexis Carrel is that "when we pray, we link ourselves with the inexhaustible motive power that spins the universe." He says that when we ask that "a part of this power be apportioned to our needs," we find that "even in asking our human deficiencies are filled and we arise strengthened and repaired."

Prayer must conform to the spirit of his love. Man has been so created that he is to glorify God and serve his fellow man. If our prayers are in any other spirit, we should expect that the answer to our request is "No!"

So often have I heard men say, "I prayed, but God did not give an answer." But there are at least three answers to prayer: "Yes," "No," and "Wait." And in much of my experience the most usual answer is "Wait," - which means that we do not know what we are asking, or else that we are not ready to receive the gift. Let us test our prayers: did we ask in the spirit to glorify God, and to serve our fellow man?

Lord, teach us to pray. (Luke 11:1 ).

NOVEMBER 10th

I remember a student of Dr. Ernest Trice Thompson who asked him in a class discussion, "What is the more necessary, secret prayer or the searching of the Scripture?'' Dr. Thompson, a professor at Union Seminary, responded by asking another question: "What is the more necessary for a bird, the right wing or the left wing?" Both are needed!

In today's mail a letter from a former teacher at Chapel Hill, N.C. reminded me of how much it means for teachers to have persons praying for them who carry the heavy load of the classroom. After prayer she said, "As a former teacher I do know that a kind gesture can save the day for a suffering person."

Maybe you will find, as I have, that often as I search the Scriptures, I will remember someone who wants my prayers and encouragement. After prayer, I am led to write a brief note of hope and cheer. The Lord wants to use your power to help lift the load of another. Do it today!

We are saved by hope. (Romans 8:24).

NOVEMBER 11th

At one of the small churches I used to serve we had a little theme song that we sang just before the prayer. It went like this, "Only believe, only believe; all things are possible, only believe."

A man wrote me after one of those services, "I was praying earnestly for success in my business, but I never believed what I was praying for could be attained. I said, 'Lord, I will not ask again, until I settle my mind and believe that what I request is possible with your help.':"

The king in Shakespeare's Hamlet went to church to pray, but his prayers were futile. In explaining his situation he said, "My words fly up, my thoughts stay below : words without thoughts never to heaven go. " When we pray the desire must be in harmony with what we ask. Much of the time we concentrate on our problem. It helps, I have found, to write down specifically my desire before I pray - else the problem will overwhelm me.

Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him: and he shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5).

NOVEMBER 12th

Can you remember the first prayer you prayed? My mother taught me my first prayer: "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take." She added to that these words: "If I should live for other days, I pray Thee, Lord, to guide my ways."

Not long ago when I had bypass surgery I prayed that little prayer before anesthesia. How grateful I am that my mother, a busy music teacher, took time to put those words in my memory. They come forth so easily in special times.

J. Arthur Rank, one of the great business leaders, told about passing the elevator to his office to take the long flight of steps. He called them his "prayer stairs." When he walked up in the mornings he prayed for God to guide every step and decision he made that day. In the morning he walked up thanking; in the evening he let each step remind him to thank God for the help He has given that day!

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:2).

NOVEMBER 13th

A man came to me once saying that he had lost everything and he was going to take his life. After 28 years in business he had lost the enterprise he founded, and what money he had saved. With such loss he didn't want to live.

In our discussion I asked him to take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle On one side put "losses" ; on the other write "assets". On the "losses" side he wrote (1) my business; (2) my money. That was all but it was everything to him.

Prodded by my inquiries, he wrote under assets: (1) a good wife; (2) loyal children; (3) skills in his business; (4) opportunity in the U.S. etc. He looked at the paper and said "I had more than I thought ; I think I will stay with it. I have lost only money and a business."

I gave him the words of an old hymn as he left: "Count your many blessings; count them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done." Later, he began another business and has done well

Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.

(James 4:8).

NOVEMBER 14th

I believe in the prayer of affirmation. One that comes readily to mind is this: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Another is "Thy kingdom come; thy will be

done."

Another prayer affirmation is "He leadeth me." When the dark night of the soul envelops us, pray: "God is light; and in him is no darkness at all." The holy Scriptures are seed-beds for positive prayer.

One person shared with me that his early morning prayer was, "Let them also that love Thy Name be joyful in Thee." (Psalm 5:11) and "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever."(I Timothy 1:17).

Envelop your mind with prayer affirmations. Soon the begging prayers will be overcome with the fact that God wants to give us more than we have ever dreamed - or prepared ourselves to receive.

The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. (Hebrews 13:6).

NOVEMBER 15th

Don't set a time limit on prayer! "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Matt. 7:7-8).

1. ASK. The very act of asking requires an answer: yes, no, wait. The first step involves the definite need and a consciousness of God's Presence.

2. SEEK. The extra effort. God will help you to answer the prayer. Seek out opportunities. He will do the rest. Most of all seek His will.

3. KNOCK. That is asking, plus seeking effort, plus persistence. Keep on knocking for His will to be done. Tagore understood what it meant to ask for less than God's will when he said, "Thou didst save me by thy hard refusals."

Pray without ceasing. ( I Thess. 5:17 ).

NOVEMBER 16th

I stumbled on a man praying for me, calling my name audibly, when I was a pastor of Centenary Church in Richmond. He was in a little room with the door slightly ajar, and I chanced to hear him. He was asking that I would be given the power to preach the Word effectively, especially to young people.

Forty years have passed since I heard that man praying for me, and it is as clear in my mind as if it were yesterday. I knew the man to be a good person, and his concern registered effectively in my mind.

It is one thing to be critical of our pastor, it is another to be concerned that the Word be preached with power. That we pray earnestly that the shepherd of the flock be made adequate to move his members to seek God and obey His commandments!

The prayer of a good man has a powerful effect.

(James 5:16).

NOVEMBER 17th

The mother of T. Dewitt Talmadge made a secret covenant with three mothers of her neighborhood that they would meet once a week to pray for the salvation of their children. When Talmadge would ask his mother, "Where are you going?" She would say, "I'm just going out for a little while; going over to the neighbors."

They kept on with this covenant until all their families were brought to the Lord, with Talmadge the last to surrender his heart. This prayer covenant was never revealed until the death of all but the last survivor. Talmadge, who became one of America's great pastors, said that he traced his own spiritual influence back to that covenant of prayer which his mother and her neighbors followed with such dedication.

How many of us, including myself, have been the objects of quiet prayer! T. Dewitt Talmadge was a powerful influence in his day - the object of a mother's prayers!

The prayer of the upright is his delight! (Proverbs 15:8).

NOVEMBER 18th

Every person who has been plagued by anxious fears understands the need for what Abbe Pierre once called "penicillin for despair." Remember Jesus in Gethsemane. The translation from the Revised Version puts it this way: "He began to be greatly amazed and sore troubled." (Mark 14:33).

A great shock leaves its trail of despair. Many of the G.I.s with me overseas were unaware of the shock followed by despair in their lives. A broken marriage, a horrible accident, the death of a loved one -- all these need "penicillin for despair."

The admonition "pull yourself together" won't do it. Look at what Jesus did:

1. He got alone and took three of his trusted friends.

2. He looked to God in prayer.

3. He took positive action.

I like to walk and pray when I am troubled, and to remember "In His will is our peace." Everybody needs some "penicillin for despair."

Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27).

NOVEMBER 19th

There is an embroidered plaque in our home which says simply, "Life outlined with prayer is less likely to unravel." It is a reminder to hold before the Throne of Grace our loved ones and ourselves.

In my study there is a prayer desk given me by my mother. It was made by a skilled craftsman from the Newport News Shipyard, and on it is my Bible and my prayer notebook.

The Bible is there to remind me that a reading from it is one of the best introductions to a period of prayer, and the prayer notebook contains pictures of persons for whom I pray. It helps me to focus my prayers.

When I was a student in Duke Divinity School, I came to know Dr. Powell the pastor of Edenton Street Church in Raleigh, N.C., who had a most effective prayer life. I went to see him, and he shared with me the idea of his prayer notebook which helped him in praying for his large parish. I have used one ever since. "Life outlined with prayer is less likely to unravel."

Lord, teach us to pray. (Luke 11:1).

NOVEMBER 20th

At Chancellor's Village where we live, we have excellent food. Our cook of many years, Mrs. Delores Coleman, tells me that she prays over the food she prepares that it may be not only tasty, but that it will bless the ones that eat it. She takes her work as seriously as a missionary. We call it the "Twice blessed food."

The second blessing is asked by those who eat her appetizing meals. I have a grand nephew who is in training to be a chef. I tell him that he can learn from Delores Coleman. The ingredient of prayer can help anyone who cooks, especially the dads and moms who prepare food for the family table.

Our food is an important factor in good health. The kind of food we eat becomes increasingly significant to our physicians who guard our physical fitness. My grandparents included their beloved Jersey cow in their prayers, that she would give good milk and cream. I grew up on twice-blessed food!

Give us day by day our daily bread. (Luke 11:3).

NOVEMBER 21st

Tennyson took a rather ordinary man named Enoch Arden and made a hero of him by showing how steadfastly Arden sealed a secret sorrow within his own life in order to protect another's joy.

A secret burden is the hardest kind to carry. How often have we noted that the strongest personalities long to share disappointments and failures with someone at the time.

One reason why prayer is so meaningful is that we can take to God the load that we cannot share with another living person. He is the eternal strength of those who turn to Him. He is the counselor of the yearning soul, the understanding Spirit of all who come to Him for understanding.

The Source of all love can look into our secret hearts and with tender compassion ease our burden, and lighten it.

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. (Isaiah 66:13).

NOVEMBER 22nd

Prayer and fasting helped to bring about the "Great Awakening" in New England in the 1730s when a prayer revival swept through the colonies and changed the face of the land. People in far away Scotland had banded themselves to fast and pray for their own land, and for loved ones in America.

At this time God put His hand on a young man, Jonathan Edwards. Edwards had graduated from Yale at seventeen. He became one of the greatest theologians and thinkers America has produced. During 1734 alone more than 300 people were converted under his ministry. Later he was president of Princeton University.

While Edwards was promoting revival through prayer, God raised up a very different kind of man, George Whitfield. The two men could not have been more different. Edwards' preaching ignited the fires of revival; Whitfield, a product of John & Charles Wesley in England, spread the flame all over the colonies. Prayer and fasting in Scotland and England help to start a great renewal of faith in our land.

He said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. (Mark 9:29).

NOVEMBER 23rd

On the western coast of Scotland there is a little island about three miles long, and a mile and a half wide. It is the island of Iona, the place where in 563 A.D. St. Columba landed from Ireland, bringing Christianity to west and north Scotland.

On little Iona he founded his community for worship and teaching; there he established his evangelical headquarters. To this day Iona is a place of remembrance, reflection, and of renewal.

Some Americans are members of the little movement founded in 1938 known as the Iona Community. On one of the little chalices in which they serve communion are the words, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" They are the same words Jesus spoke to Judas Iscariot when he came to betray him in Gethsemane. (Matt. 26:50).

It is a reminder even at the Lord's table to examine our heart, and see if the life we live betrays the commitment we make.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:12)

NOVEMBER 24th

I do not think Judas betrayed his Lord all of a sudden because he willed it. He had been living with some mental images for a long time. His betrayal was the outcome of those mental images he had been living, and suddenly he gave into them in a crisis.

Paul did not write the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians all of a sudden "out of the blue" because he desired to do so. Over the years he had lived with the divine Presence of his Lord and the accumulating consequences of that inward fellowship ended by writing the most glorious passage of love in the world's literature.

Ask Paul how that great love chapter was written, and I think he would say, " It was not my will. I lived with Christ. I had an inner fellowship with him. I kept him in my imagination. Never a day passed when I did not for a little while reestablish my fellowship with Him. Not I, but Christ liveth in me! "

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

(II Cor. 5:17).

NOVEMBER 25th

Over years of spiritual service one theme seems to come from persons I meet who want to put aside the past and begin anew. That theme is simply this: "I could begin anew if I could start in a new place - away from the influences that have caused me to be what I am now!"

Yet God gives us the power to make a new beginning - not somewhere else, with different influences, but right where we are. It is one of the greatest discoveries - the power to overcome the obstacles thought to be anchors on our soul.

When I preached my first sermon, I was encouraged by our pastor to do so right in the community where I had been a teen-age cut-up. There were the fellows on the front pew of the church with that look, "I can't believe my eyes." My desire was to be in a new place with new faces, but the Lord wanted to teach me that He would give the power to start anew in the midst of the guys with whom I had been a little devil.

Power to make a new beginning - the Lord makes a speciality of it with those who trust Him!

Be strong in the Lord, in the power of his might. (Ephesians 6:10).

NOVEMBER 26th

The Bible teaches us that if we would change our lives, we must improve our thoughts. Marcus Aurelius, often designated the wisest man of the Roman Empire, said, "You life is what your thoughts make of it." Ralph Waldo Emerson commented, "A man is what he thinks about all day long."

Norman Vincent Peele used to tell about a barber's convention that sought out a dead beat, drunken, unshaven with tattered clothes, and they gave him a bath, shave, shampoo, facial massage, manicure - the works! People couldn't believe it was the same man. He was transformed from a bum to one of the finest looking men around.

One businessman was so impressed that he gave him a job. He was to come to work the next morning at eight o'clock. He was late. In fact, he didn't show up all day. The employer went looking for him and found him down the same old street, dead drunk, sleeping on some old newspapers in the alley. He told his friends, "You may change a person's outside appearance, but the man himself remains the same until he is changed inside."

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord....

(Isaiah 55:7).

NOVEMBER 27th

Every day I look at a gift given me by my daughter and am thankful. The idea came from England where there is one in almost every hotel. It is a Hammacher Schlemmer electronic pants presser. What a gift for a man!

Come in from a rainy day, or any time; place your trousers in the presser, turn on the timing (15 to 45 minutes,) hang your coat on its rack, put the change from your pockets in a little receptacle - and the next morning your pants are ready for a good day!

Men are difficult to shop for, but some gifts last and last, and this is one of them. How meaningful are the gifts given to us by our loved ones - especially those rare ones that can be used every day.

But the best gift of all that can be a daily blessing is the knowledge of God's love, as revealed through our Bible. It is an every day comfort and blessing. Happy is the person who "reads, marks, learns and inwardly digests" the Word of God!

Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 3:18).

NOVEMBER 28th

Why does a Christian call the Lord's Supper the Eucharist? The word in Greek means "Thank You!" In France we would say Merci, or in Italy, Gratia, and in modern Greek, Eucharisto.

The Lord's Supper is for a group of people who know they are sinners, having faced a profound need, met with a profound salvation, going up before the cross of Christ, the symbol of the price paid for our help, to express a great gratitude.

Gratitude is the mother of all virtues. The Eucharist in the deepest sense are people who believe they can never pay back the debt they owe. They have received what they never could deserve or earn, and only the deepest gratitude can be the response!

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving! (Psalm 95:2).

NOVEMBER 29th

"What is the greatest tragedy you have encountered in the human spirit?" a college student inquired of me on a university campus.

My answer: "The greatest tragedy I have encountered in the human spirit has been in the lives of women and men who, with the capacity to stand upright, crawl through life on their hands and knees!"

In an age known for its abundance of things and the discovered ability to prolong life, we have developed mostly quantity and little quality. We have magnified the physical and neglected the spiritual. The guilt in men's souls has been left to fester.

Humanity must discover anew the path to God's forgiveness, and the creativity the Heavenly Father meant for each of us to possess!

Repent. and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.. (Acts 2:38).

NOVEMBER 30th

I lost my favorite writing pen. It was one that fitted my hand, and I searched and searched for it. Months went by and I substituted other pens, but the one I liked most was not to be found in any of the places I thought it might be.

Then I gave way to simply thanking the Lord for the period I had used it, and adapted to a new pen. One must go on. I simply put the idea out of my mind that I would recover that delightful pen.

As the weather became cool I pulled a favorite wool jacket out of the closet. It felt good to have the warmth around my shoulders. Then I felt something different in one of the pockets I never use. My favorite writing pen - all the time a few feet from me in our bedroom closet!

Much more important than a writing pen, Jesus talked about a person who was lost. The Bible tells us that He came to "seek and save that which was lost." He knew the joy of finding the strayed and lost.

In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10).

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